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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

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Andrew Marr

Lindsey Fitzharris

Lesley Colvin

Beth Singler

Emma Byrne

Katy Hickman

Start the Week: Blood, guts and swearing robots

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20/11/2017

Blood, guts and swearing robots

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Blood, guts and swearing robots

Andrew Marr with Lindsey Fitzharris, Lesley Colvin, Beth Singler and Emma Byrne.

Cultural discussion programme. Andrew Marr discusses gangrene, pain and swearing with Lindsey Fitzharris, Lesley Colvin, Beth Singler and Emma Byrne.

Victorian hospitals were known as 'houses of death' and their surgeons, who never washed their hands, were praised for their brute strength and speed. Lindsey Fitzharris tells Andrew Marr about the pioneering British surgeon Joseph Lister who transformed his profession. Anaesthesia was discovered in the 1840s but Professor Lesley Colvin says we're still learning about the complex relationship between the brain and the perception of pain, as well as understanding the potential harm of the increased use of strong opiates. Pain is common to all humans, but could - and should - robots feel pain? This is the question Dr Beth Singler poses in a new film exploring the limits of Artificial Intelligence. And if they are programmed to feel pain, should they also be taught to swear? Dr Emma Byrne looks at the science of bad language and why it can also be harnessed to reduce pain.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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